Play Ball!

Ah, spring. There's no surer sign of the season than baseball's Opening Day. Sure, you can crow all you want about the three official games already in the books, but to me (and a lot of baseball purists, I would think), it isn't truly Opening Day until the Cincinnati Reds open play. They do so at 2:10 this afternoon against the Chicago Cubs at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. This is the true opening of the baseball season, and an undeniable sign that spring is here.

Of course, it's currently 27° here in Toledo. So much for spring. I really can't complain too much, though--the sun is shining, and it's a beautiful morning. At least it isn't raining, or worse, snowing.

The weekend was much the same: a little chillier than I'd like, at least partially due to the ever-present Bowling Green wind, but overall pretty nice. The weather wasn't such that it discouraged us from getting out of the apartment a little bit, at any rate.

Brandi gets off work before noon on Fridays. She drove to BG immediately after work, so she was at my place when I got home. Napping, actually. I would have been more than happy to join her, being pretty tired myself, but she had decided to nap on the couch, and there wasn't really any room for me to squeeze in next to her. It was probably better that way, though--by staying awake, I kept my momentum; whereas if I had fallen asleep it likely would have spelled the end of the evening.

She woke up shortly after I got home, with only a little assistance from me. We got ourselves ready and went out for dinner that night with our friend Cricket. We went to a place called SamB's, which is a nice little restaurant in downtown Bowling Green. It's a really good place to eat--my only complaint is that they change the menu all the time, and whatever I had the previous time (which has always been great) is no longer available. That's probably a good thing, though, as it forces me to try something new. At any rate, we sat at the bar and had a drink while we waited for our table. The wait was about 45 minutes, but it was worth it--the food was awesome. Besides, we hadn't seen Cricket for a while, and it was cool to hang out.

After dinner, Brandi and I went to BW3 to have a few more drinks and just hang out. That was fun, as always. There was a Cleveland Cavs game on, so we got to see a little bit of that. We also played the interactive trivia, which we always have a good time with. Brandi ran into an old friend who's going to try to help her get a job in Toledo, which would be awesome. We didn't close the place down, at least in part because I was still tired, but it was fun to hang out and wind down for a while.

On Saturday we took our time about waking up. We slept in, then hung out on the couch in front of the television. Eventually we got out of the house a little bit, to go out for ice cream. We tried to go to Beyond 2000, which was a place in downtown BG that featured hand-dipped ice cream, but we discovered that it had gone out of business a few days before. I don't quite understand why an ice cream shop would cease operations just before spring, but that's what happened. We still wanted ice cream, so we ended up at Dairy Queen. That's not bad, though--we got some french fries to snack on as well, and they're great. The Dairy Queen in BG is also known for serving up large portions, which is a bonus.

From there we went to the Wood County Humane Society to visit the animals, as we do from time to time. We hadn't been there for a few weeks (as Brandi hasn't been in town for a few weeks), and the cat we liked so much last time was gone. Hopefully he found a good home. We played with the cats for a while, which was fun. We also went to see the dogs this time, which we hadn't done before. That wasn't as much fun, as you're not allowed to reach into the kennels and pet them. Also, all the dogs they had were enormous. I'm more of a mid-sized dog fan. I like all dogs, of course, but mid-sized ones just fit me better. Small dogs are too yippy and annoying, and big dogs are...well, they're just too big.

That evening, Brandi met up with her friend Rachel, and they went out for a while. They had dinner and hung out while I ostensibly watched the Final Four games. Actually I ended up sleeping on the couch for most of the first game, and Brandi came home at the beginning of the second. We watched that game together and then caught most of Saturday Night Live before going to bed.

On Sunday I slept in while Brandi got up and went rollerblading. When she got back, we cleaned up and went out for a bit. Due to Georgia Tech's defeat of Oklahoma State in the Final Four the night before, Brandi won our little wager on the brackets, so I took her shopping. It was actually a pretty good time. That night we went to Cricket's recital--she sang/conducted about twenty songs, which is something she had to do for her Master's degree.

After the recital, Brandi and I went with Cricket and her boyfriend Adam and a whole slew of others to a townie bar in BG which was having Sunday night karaoke. That was pretty entertaining. The people who sang from our group, being made up mostly of vocal education types, were pretty good (I'm proud to say that Brandi's rendition of "Dancing Queen" was quite good--I love it when she sings). The other people in the bar, not so great. It's always fun to watch, though.

We were out pretty late, though, which made getting up this morning tough. I did put my alarm clock across the room from my bed, though, and thus managed to make it to work on time this morning. That's a good thing. Now I just hope I can keep it up.

Brandi had to drive back today, as she has to work this afternoon. I know she hates that--she really dreads leaving BG now. She gets to come back on Thursday of this week, though, so it'll be a short one for her, and in only a couple of months she'll be back in BG for good. That'll be nice for both of us.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a baseball score to monitor. Let's play ball!